THE 



PROTESTANT FAITH 



OR 



SALVATION BY BELIEF 



BY 



DWIGHT HINCKLEY OLMSTEAD 



THIRD EDITION, WITH AN INTRODUCTION ON 
THE LIMITATIONS OF THOUGHT 



G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 
NEW YORK AND LONDON 

^be ftnlcfterlJocFiec press 

1897 



Wl^ 




'HVO COPfF?; r?Frrivrn 




COPYRIGHT BY 

DWIGHT H. OLMSTEAD 
1885 



COPYRIGHT BY 

DWIGHT H. OLMSTEAD 
1897 



Zbe 'Rnicfeerbockec pvcss, l^ew HJotl: 



PREFACE TO THE SECOND 
EDITION. 



The following essay, in substantially its 
present form, was read by the author before 
the Youno- Men's Christian Union of New 

o 

York in 1S56, and afterwards on two other 
occasions in 1S60. 

In 1874 It was printed, and some copies 
were distributed gratuitously, but none were 
placed upon the market for sale. 

The author believes that its publication at 
this time will be of service to those disquieted 
by modern doubts, and he presents the essay 
to the consideration of Catholic and Protestant 
alike. 

He is aware that the discourse does not 
affect, except incldentalh". the fundamental 
question of the certainty and consequent re- 
liability of beliefs and opinions. For. to 
what extent the latter are voluntarv or invol- 



111 



IV PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION, 

untary is one thing, but how far they can be 
depended upon and are therefore of value is 
quite another. 

He will be prepared to suggest a hypothe- 
sis upon that subject, after the arguments of 
this present essay shall have been disposed of. 

D. H. O. 

New York, April, 1885. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Introduction to the Third Edition, on The 

Limitations of Thought v 

Preface to the Second Edition „ 5 

I. The Protestant Reformation how occasioned. . . 7 

II. The Intellectual Character of the Reformation. 11 

III. Free Inquiry against Authority 12 

IV. Justification by Faith 16 

V. What Luther and the Reformers meant by 

Faith 19 

VI. The Relation between Moral Obligation and 

Moral Consequences 22 

VII. The nature of Beliefs and Opinions , . 30 

VIII. Concluding remarks , 45 

APPENDIX. 

Note 1 69 

Note 2 69 

Note 3 73 

Note 4 73 

Notes 73 

Note 6 74 

Commendatory Criticisms 75 



INTRODUCTION TO THE THIRD 
EDITION. 

THE LIMITATIONS OF THOUGHT. 



Until the questions, how far beliefs are 
binding on the individual holding them, and 
to what extent they are conclusive and certain 
in themselves, are settled, the Protestant 
Reformation begun by Luther will not have 
reached its logical end. For it will be found 
to be free thought itself which has supplied 
the answer to those questions, and has de- 
clared the correct limitations of thought. 

Whatever is involuntary is also compulsory. 
Therefore, had Luther, at the Diet of Worms, 
instead of declaring as he did, that he " would 
not go back a single inch," proceeded a step 
further and said he '' could not," he would have 
announced the ultimate and vital principle of 
Protestantism, and averted three centuries of 



2 INTRODUCTION. 

religious contention.* The obligatory charac- 
ter of beliefs upon the individual holding them 
is the point he failed to apprehend and state. 
It does not follow, however, that such beliefs 
and mental determinations, although conclusive 
on the individual, are necessarily true in them- 
selves, since the conscious limitations of the 
human mind do not permit its assertion of 
the true and absolute. While this has been 
claimed to be disproved by the Cartesian form- 
ula '' Cogito, ergo simi'' (I think, therefore I 
exist), it is obvious that the formula goes no 
further than if it said Cogito, ergo Ego (I think, 
therefore I) — that is, A equals A. Thought 
and being are not identical. 

Thought presupposes an authoritative sanc- 
tion for which the Ego stands, but not neces- 
sarily a personal being. Without such sanction, 
reason, understanding, and memory could have 
no support or recognition, and the human mind 
would be like a ship on the boundless ocean 
without compass or rudder. Nor can the ex- 
istence of an infinite being be more certainly 

*See pp. 14, 15, infra. 



IN TR OD UC TION. 3 

affirmed than that of a finite being. The ideas 
are correlated. Doubtless there appears to be 
an irresistible force and will endowed with in- 
telligence which permeates and moves the uni- 
verse, but there has never been any decisive 
proof that behind that seeming force is an 
actual distinctive personality. 

It is, therefore, according to the apprehension 
of each individual that the outward world, or 
what is objective, even what are called *' neces- 
sary truths," for him may be said to exist. 
The Ego pretends to declare neither the real 
nor the unreal. It stands for a supreme sub- 
jective authority, whose adjudications, while 
impossible to be denied, cannot be absolutely 
affirmed. 

We thus take our departure from the posi- 
tive philosophy of Cousin and Hamilton, and 
come to what may be termed xh^ Philosophy of 
the Undeniable. 

This — the binding and conclusive nature of 
opinions, for the time being, upon the person 
holding them and the uncertainty of their ten- 
ure — is the final solution of the theory of in- 



4 INTRODUCTION. 

voluntary belief. Upon the acceptance of this 
theory must stand philosophy, science, and 
even biblical criticism. What cannot be con- 
troverted is not necessarily nor even presump- 
tively true ; because the contention, if any, is 
subject to the same limitations as the assertion. 

It is the province of science to discover 
and demonstrate universal truths, so called, 
namely, those which are undeniable to the 
common reason and universally accepted, like 
the phenomena of time, space, and number, 
whether real verities or not, and it is upon 
such demonstration that the whole scientific 
fabric rests. 

What appeals to his understanding the sci- 
entist believes regardless of the statements of 
the Bible to the contrary ; and what the bibli- 
cal critic does not believe, he also justifies by 
the consciously binding nature of his judg- 
ments. Each of them knows that for himself 
there is no other criterion of truth than himself. 
He is the ultimate judge. 

It has been the good fortune of the scientist 
largely to escape the necessity of argument 



INTRODUCTION, 5 

which the maintenance of abstract theological 
opinions requires. He has recognized from 
the outset the principle of compulsory belief 
for which we contend. As remarked by Helm- 
holtz in his Theory of Vision: " All we can do 
by voluntary and conscious effort in order to 
come to a conclusion is, after all, only to sup- 
ply complete materials for constructing the 
necessary premises. As soon as this is done, 
the conclusion forces itself upon us. These 
conclusions, which (it is supposed) may be ac- 
cepted or avoided as we please, are not worth 
much." 

But, on the contrary, the biblical critic, while 
recognizing the compulsory and binding nature 
of his own opinions so far as he himself is con- 
cerned, refuses to recognize the principle as 
applicable to others, and thus justifies the con- 
tention of the Roman Catholic that Protestant- 
ism is destructive of the idea of a church 
universal, — in other words, of any church, — 
which, however, is a logical conclusion applica- 
ble to the Roman Catholic Church as well. 

The following essay was projected in the 



6 IN TR OD UC TION. 

mind of the author half a century ago. The 
first edition of the essay was issued in 1874. 
The author beHeves the modern tendency of 
scientific and reHgious thought justifies its 
republication, and that many of its proposi- 
tions which were generally rejected at the 
time it was written, will now be generally con- 
ceded. 

Some of the criticisms which appeared sub- 
sequent to the first publication are appended 
to the present edition. 

D. H. O. 

New York, October^ 1S97. 



AN ESSAY 



ON THE 



PROTESTANT FAITH. 



I. 

The Protestant Reformation how occa- 
sioned. 

The sixteenth century ushered in a period 
of great intellectual activity. The revival of 
literature, art and science ; the brilliant mari- 
time discoveries ; the prevailing spirit of con- 
troversy and enterprise ; but more especially 
the introduction of printing, whereby knowl- 
edge was disseminated, and made common to 
more than one nation or generation, had all 
given a new and remarkable impulse to hu- 
man thought, distinguishing that as the most 
important epoch in modern history. As men 

7 



o THE PROTESTANT FAITH. 

began to think for themselves, their first pro- 
testation, as may well be supposed, was 
against the restraint of thought and its au- 
thoritative dictation. The fears of the Vicar 
of Croydon were well nigh realized : " We 
''must root out printing, or printing will root 
"out us." 

It must not be forgotten that for centuries 
the Roman Church had been the prominent, 
controlling power of Christendom. She did 
not spring up in a day, but was ''the fruit of 
"a long array of most learned men, distin- 
"guished colleges and councils, sanctioned by 
" noble martyrs and numerous miracles." 

So much was she, for these reasons, lifted 
above the common crowd, it is not surprising 
if to them her utterances had early the force 
of law, and that she, in turn, should count her- 
self infallible. 

But not content with being the spiritual 
head, she aspired to temporal dominion. She 
demanded tribute from all nations, and ar- 
rayed armed legions for her own use ; she 
made and unmade kings ; she became the 



THE PROTESTANT FAITH. 9 

umpire of trade ; she dictated laws and treat- 
ies. At all Christian courts her legates took 
precedence, soon assuming to represent that 
divine right — that supreme authority — by 
whose sanction alone princes were then, as 
now, supposed to govern. 

To this supremacy she set up the claim of 
prescription. Had she not for a thousand 
years stood firm on that rock whereon Christ 
himself had set her, amid changing empires, 
the rude assaults of barbarism, and the decis- 
ions of hostile councils ? Had not her edicts 
become the recognized theology of the greater 
part of the civilized world ? How could she 
be in error who could point to a history like 
this? 

At length her prestige began to decline ; 
and while that result was in no small degree 
due to the corruptions of the priesthood, its 
main cause is to be found in that growing 
mental enfranchisement ever since peculiarly 
characteristic of the Protestant nations, im- 
parting to them a superior energy and intelli- 
gence, derived, as has been most truly said. 



10 THE PROTESTANT FAITH. 

''not from the creeds they hold, but from the 
"private liberty which accompanies these 
" creeds." * 

Never before had the traditional preten- 
sions and policy of the Church been so seri- 
ously and persistently questioned, nor ever 
before had so large a proportion of the Chris- 
tian world presumed to assert anything con- 
trary to her canons. But now the boldness of 
a few learned men at first, and afterwards of 
the people at large, began to shake her au- 
thority. 

It was not that men had the right to think, 
but the undeniable, patent fact, that they did 
think, and could not help thinking and having 
intelligent opinions of their own, which gave 
point to the struggle. 

Thus arose that great conflict between Au- 
thority, so called, and Opinion — between the 
authority of the Pope and the opinions of the 
educated classes ; between the authority of 
councils and the individual judgment. And it 
need scarcely be said that the contest, al- 
* Westminster Review, Jan. 1858. 



THE PROTESTANT FAITH. II 

though in the most enHghtened countries 
somewhat in favor of the individual, is not 
concluded even to this day. 

II. 

The Intellectual Character of the Ref- 
ormation. 

The Lutheran reformation, which had, in 
reality, been impending from the time of 
Wyckliffe, was an intellectual rather than a 
religious movement. From it nothing has 
been gained directly for religion ; nothing, 
except what has resulted from independence 
of thought, free speech, and the present het- 
erogeneous character of the Christian world 
— for even this last is progress. 

It was not wholly a failure ; since, whatever 
may have been the theological errors of Lu- 
ther, (and grave errors they were), it cannot 
be denied that in the history of the present 
wide and fundamental variance between the 
hereditary assumptions of the Church and 
common sense, he was among the first who 



1 2 THE PRO TESTA NT FAITH. 

Opened the gate of free inquiry, disenthralled 
men from a blind, unreasonable subservience 
to priestly rule, and directed them to the par- 
tial liberty they have since enjoyed. 

III. 

Free Inquiry against Authority. 

That this was the occasion and essential 
feature of the Reformation, an assertion of 
the right, or rather the recognition of the ne- 
cessity of private judgment and interpreta- 
tion, as opposed to the authority and dictation 
of the Church, it will not be difficult to show 
from the writings and disputations of Luther 
himself. 

"• Retract," said the Pope's legate to him at 
Augsburg. "' Retract ! acknowledge thy er- 
" ror, whether thou believest it an error or not ! 
'' The Pope commands thee to do this."* 

'' Convince me," replied Luther. 

One of the conditions imposed upon Luther 
was " that he should not circulate any opin- 
* Michelet, Life of Luther, p. 50. 



THE PROTESTANT FAITH, 1 3 

**ions at variance with the authority of the 
-Church." 

*' Do you not know," said the cardinal to 
him, '' that the Pope is above all councils?" 

But ** from the Pope ill informed," Luther 
appeals **to the Pope better informed." 

He also afterwards declared, '' In what con- 
''cerns the word of God and the faith, every 
'' Christian is as good a judge for himself as 
**the Pope can be for him."* 

This conflict between the authority of the 
Church and private opinion, between the 
assumption of infallibility and the protest 
against it, was nowhere more marked than at 
the Diet at Worms, whereof we have Luther's 
own account. 

Said the Emperor s orator to him, " Martin, 
''you have assumed a tone which becomes not 

'* a man of your condition You 

''have resuscitated dogmas which have been 
*' distinctly condemned by the Council of Con- 
'' stance, and you demand to be convicted 
''thereupon out of the Scriptures. But if 
* Michelet, Life of Luther, pp. 94, 95. 



14 THE PROTESTANT FAITH. 

" every one were at liberty to bring back into 
"discussion points which for ages have been 
"settled by the Church and by Councils, 
" nothing would be certain and fixed — doc- 
" trine or dogma — and there would be no be- 
" lief which men must adhere to under pain 
"of eternal damnation. You, for instance, 
" who to-day reject the authority of the Coun- 
" cil of Constance, to-morrow may, in like 
" manner, proscribe all councils together, and 
" next, the Fathers and the Doctors ; and 
" there would remain no authority whatever 
"but that individual word, which we call to 
"witness, and which you also invoke." * 

But Luther " could only repeat what he 
" had already declared : that unless they 
" proved to him by irresistible arguments 
" that he was in the wrong, he would not go 
" back a single inch ; that what the councils 
"had laid down was no article of faith; that 
" councils had often erred, had often contra- 
" dieted each other, and that their testimony 
" consequently was not convincing." f 

* Michelet, Life of Luther, p. 90. \ Ibid. p. 89. 



THE PROTESTANT FAITH. 1 5 

Further, while resisting the authority of the 
Church, Luther, at the same time, claimed for 
his own opinions the weight of authority, 
binding not alone upon himself, but upon all 
the world beside. 

When the Zwinglians inquired of him what 
would effect a reconciliation between them, 
he answered, '* Let our adversaries believe as 
we do." 

'' We cannot," responded the Swiss. 

'* Well then," replied Luther, *' I abandon 
"you to God's judgment."* 

Robertson, in his history of Charles the 
Fifth, makes this deserved remark. '' Luther, 
" Calvin, Cranmer, Knox, the founders of the 
''reformed church in their respective coun- 
'' tries, inflicted so far as they had the power 
''and opportunity, the same punishments 
"which were demanded against their own 
" disciples by the Church of Rome, on such 
" as called in question any article of their 
" creeds." 

* Merle d'Aubigne', Hist. Ref. Vol. IV. p. 99 



1 6 THE PROTESTANT FAITH. 

"God" (said Knox) '' raiseth them up to 
'' slay those whom the Kirk hateth."* 

IV. 

Justification by Faith. 

Let us now examine the peculiar but per- 
nicious tenet of "justification by faith," which 
Luther advanced, and which is, to this day, 
the key-note of Protestant theology. That 
doctrine was thus declared by the regulations 
published by Joachim in 1539 : 

" That we obtain the remission of sins, jus- 
" tification, and final and eternal salvation by 
" the mere grace of God, and only through 
"faith in the redemption of Christ, and by no 
"worthiness, work, or desert of our own." 

From time immemorial the Roman Catho- 
lic Church had held that the performance of 
duty lay in some act, rather than in a belief, 
although she seems never to have precisely 
determined the quality essential to salvation. 

* Attributed to John Knox by James Grant, in his novel 
" Bothwell, or the Days of Mary Queen of Scots." 



THE PROTESTANT FAITH. 1 7 

She imposed the condition of meritorious 
deeds, and buried her devotees in the cloister 
with fasting and penance, or sent them forth 
to administer to human needs, or perchance 
to perish in battle before the walls of infidel 
cities. Indeed, so much of real heroism and 
warlike renown was associated and entwined 
with this theology of works, that for her to 
give it up was to surrender and make secular 
the splendid history of centuries. 

Luther, disgusted with the traffic in indul- 
gences, the gross impositions and abandoned 
habits of the priesthood ; unable to reconcile 
their practices with their professions, or the 
canons of the Church with either ; and being, 
if not more spiritual, at least more honest or 
more bold than they, undertook to interpret 
the Bible for himself, according to his unques- 
tionable right so to do. But in that interpre- 
tation he perpetuated these two most fatal 
errors : first, the assumed importance of en- 
deavoring to save the soul, whether by faith 
or works ; and second, that immunity from 
moral punishment is secured by some belief. 



1 8 THE PR O TES TA NT FA ITH. 

To these same errors, common to, and the 
essential features of most if not all prevailing 
religious systems, let us briefly direct our at- 
tention. I shall endeavor to show : 

I. That the avoidance of moral consequences 
bez7ig wholly tttilitarian, can be no ijice^itive to 
the pe7^for77iance of duty ; and that an act per- 
formed with any refere7ice to a personal be^ie- 
fit, is jtcst to that extent without merit. 

II. That belief is 7iot sitbject to the zuill, but 
is invohintary, and is tJierefore not blame- 
worthy. 

The importance and bearing of the Investi- 
gation is obvious. For, if a personal wish 
and effort for salvation be not an act of duty, 
under a strict definition of that term, and an 
involuntary belief be not able of itself to ef- 
fect that salvation, then it follows as a matter 
of course, that the inquiry common to most 
Christians as well as heathen, ''What shall we 
"do to be saved?" as also their answers, that 
salvation comes by *' belief," can find no place 
in a correct system of moral science. 



THE PROTESTANT FAITH. 1 9 



V. 



What Luther and the Reformers meant 
BY "Faith." 

Before proceeding directly to the consider- 
ation of these topics, it is proper to observe 
that Luther and the reformers meant by the 
word " faith," ('' The just shall live by faith "),* 
not a trust, a hope, a confidence, a reliance, 
an assurance, a sentiment, or the like, as sug- 
gested by some persons who have anticipated 
the arguments I shall urge, but simple intel- 
lectual belief or mental assent, in its plainest 
acceptation. As this may be deemed a mat- 
ter of consequence, let us at the outset dis- 
pose of it. 

The historian. Merle d'Aubigne, informs us 
that Luther, Melanchthon, Agricola, Brientz, 
Justus Jonas, and Osiander, ^' being convinced 
** that their peculiar doctrine on the Eucharist 
''was essential to salvation, they considered 

* Galatians, iii. ii. 



20 THE PROTESTANT FAITH. 

'all those who rejected it, as without the pale 

* of the faith." 

" But that faith (which makes us Chris- 
*tians)," declares Luther, ''consists in the 
'firm belief \\\2X Jesus is the Son of God." 

He also says, '' A man's sins are not par- 

' doned unless he believes that they are par- 

' doned when the priest pronounces absolu- 

'tion." And again, '* I have affirmed," says 

Luther, *' that no man can be justified before 

* God except hy faith; so that it is necessary 
' that a man should believe with perfect confi- 
' dence that he has received pardon. To 
' doubt of this grace is to reject it."* 

Merle d'Aubigne tells us that " Luther ex- 

* pressed astonishment that the Swiss divines 
'could look upon him as a Christian brother 
' when they did not believe his doctrines to be 
'true."f 

Zwingle also says: "In every nation who- 
' soever believes with all his heart in the Lord 
'Jesus, is accepted of God. Here truly is 

* See also Merle d'Aubigne, Hist. Ref. Vol. II. p. iii. 
t See Appendix. Note i. 



THE PROTESTANT FAITH. 21 

** the Church, out of which no one can be 
" saved." 

The 44th and last article of the Athanaslan 
creed, as found in modern English Prayer 
Books, and which is to-day made a test of 
church membership, is in these words : '' This 
** is the Catholic Faith, which, except a man 
'' believe faithfully, he cannot be saved." 

Take away the creeds from the churches, 
and what remains to distinguish them either 
as religious organizations or from each other? 
The '* essential" creeds are certainly the bond 
of the '' evangelical " churches. Indeed, the 
difference between the most conservative and 
progressive sects of the present day — between 
Episcopalians, Universalists, Roman Catho- 
lics, Methodists, Baptists, Unitarians, and all 
other denominations — is marked solely and 
entirely by differences of opinion. That is 
what really keeps them apart, and not any 
principle, nor their forms of worship. So, 
however faith In the abstract may be defined, 
it is a matter of little moment, since the actual 
fact appears to be, that diversities of opinion, 



22 THE PROTESTAXT FAITH. 

or simple intellectual beliefs, and not senti- 
mentalities, or emotions, or purposes divide 
religious bodies. 

If the word "faith" had come to have a 
different signification from what it possessed 
at the time of the Reformation (which it has 
not), it would only prove that Luther and 
Calvin were not the fathers of modern theol- 
ogy- 

It might be shown, if necessary, that noth- 
ing can be further from our volition than an 
engendered trust, or confidence, or even feel- 
ing, or any of those mental states proposed 
to be substituted for plain belief. But such a 
discussion would be foreign to the present 
purpose. 

VI. 

The Relation between Moral Obligation 
AND Moral Consequences. 

Having thus shown that the Protestant 
''faith" means practically the Protestant 
"belief," both as understood by the reform- 



THE PROTESTANT FAITH. 23 

ers, and by modern acceptation, I proceed to 
discuss the first topic, namely : the unfitness 
of an appeal to the sentiment of fear in pro- 
ducing religious emotion, 

"What must I do to inherit eternal life?" 
is the caption of an article in the '' Family 
*' Christian Almanac," published by the Amer- 
ican Tract Society. Here follows the answer. 
'' What must I do ? By the grace of God, 
*'and according to His truth, I will tell you. 
''You must admit and feel that you are a sin- 
'' ner, guilty, polluted, condemned, lost, and 
^' so dead in sins as to be in need of eternal 
^'life." . . . ''You must believe that He 
''is the Saviour, the only Saviour, able to 
" save to the uttermost ; willing to save all 
"that will come to Him; ready and willing 
"to save you, and to save you now;" and 
much more to the same effect. 

Whatever may be the views and refine- 
ments of the more educated members of the 
" orthodox " churches, it Is fair to presume 
that the foregoing quotation fairly expresses 
the sum total of the formal religion of the 



24 THE PROTESTANT FAITH. 

majority of them ; that with them the object 
of religion is to save the soul, and to save it 
by a certain prescribed belief. 

A prominent Presbyterian clergyman of 
Brooklyn, in a published discourse, remarks : 
'' Here is the fatal barrier that lies between 
''their souls and Heaven — unbelief." 
** Unbelief excludes a sinner from the rest of 
" Heaven. It is man's crowning sin." . 
*' The fatal chasm that separates the soul from 
'' its rest, has been not an immoral life, not a 
'* severe and angry God, not a violated law, 
" but unbelief — simple unbelief — a heartless, 
wilful, determined unbelief."* 

The conclusions hereafter arrived at, as to 
the involuntary character of beliefs and opin- 
ions sufficiently refute such theology ; but 
there are other objections to it. 

Taking the term ''salvation" In the strictly 
orthodox and popular sense, namely, as the 
remission of a deserved penalty, as an immu- 
nity, temporal or eternal, from bodily or spir- 

* " The Promise Unrealized," by Rev. J. E. Rockwell, 
D.D. Published Sept. 1859. 



THE PROTESTANT FAITH. 2$ 

itual suffering, what, it may be asked — judged 
by a moral standard — is the relation between 
the salvation of the human family hereafter, 
and their right conduct here ? The ideas of 
right, wrong, duty, moral obligation, have no 
necessary connection with the notion of re- 
wards and punishments. The sentiment of 
duty is wholly removed from that of recom- 
pense. " Duty is not measured by reward.'"^ 
The end of man's moral nature is virtue, not 
happiness. The punishment of self-disap- 
proval — of conscience — is undoubtedly conse- 
quent on'wrong doing, either in its earlier or 
later stages ; but it would be equally wrong 
doing, whether followed by punishment or 
not. As virtue is, in the abstract, independ- 
ent of its rewards, so is sin of its penalties. 

Looking at it in the ''orthodox" view, 
(which is not admitted to be the correct one), 
namely, that under the doctrine of free grace 
the accountability occasioned by sin is but a 
mere liability to account, the punishment is 
not certain, even though the law be broken. 
* Cousin, Hist. Mod. Phil Vol. II. p. 285. 



26 THE PROTESTANT FAITH. 

What if we err about the fact of our pun- 
ishment, will that change either the fact itself, 
or the obligations imposed upon us ? 

Even were our beliefs voluntary, could it, 
in a moral aspect, be of any possible avail to 
us to know the conditions of either our pres- 
ent or future existence ? for we live subject 
to a moral law, whether aware of it or not. 

'' It seems enough for us," as Benjamin 
Franklin said, ** that the soul will be treated 
** with justice in another life respecting its 
"conduct in this." 

Whether mankind are to meet their deserts 
here or hereafter, or what may be their just 
deserts, is one thing ; but it is quite another 
how far the performance of one's duty is to 
be affected by a solution of the question. 

We are enjoined by orthodox theology to 
attend to the salvation of our souls. But why 
should we ? The sense of duty is an author- 
itative consciousness, imperatively imposed, a 
voice as of God within us, carrying its own 
sanction, and must be obeyed, like any other 
law, for its own sake, because to each of us it 



THE PROTESTANT FAITH. 2/ 

evidently and undeniably commands what is 
right. 

Self-approval and disapproval — which are 
the monitions of conscience — moral sentinels, 
so to speak, having the same relation to the 
spiritual well-being as pain has to the bodily 
— simply point to the rule of right, and are 
its accidents, but do not afford the reason of 
it. An action may seem to tend to desirable 
results, yet there can be no personal virtue in 
its performance unless it is performed from a 
sense of duty alone ; and, whoever acts for 
the sake of recompense, (as he must who 
makes the recompense a motive), is just to 
that extent not virtuous ; because the very 
idea of a virtuous act, as recognized in the 
mind, is that it is something to be performed 
wholly regardless of consequences. 

Virtue is disinterested, is superior to self 
and disregards it. If it does not disregard 
expediency as an end, then it is not virtue. 
Nay, it contains the idea of sacrifice. 

Again, as before remarked, a just law vindi- 
cates itself — bears its own sanction — and the 



28 THE PROTESTANT FAITH. 

obligation to obey it does not proceed from 
the personal consequences of its infraction, 
however lamentable they may be, but from 
its evident justness and fitness. '' Right is 
*' not right because God wills it to be right, 
" but from its own reasonableness ; " other- 
wise God would be a tyrant. I ought to do 
a certain thing, or follow a certain course of 
action, because it seems to me that I ought ; 
because /, {Ego, myself) being the sole 7iltimate 
authority, believe it to be right. Can argu- 
ment add any strength to that affirmation ? 
Would not the denial of it be to deny what 
at the same time I myself affirmed? Con- 
science therefore is not so much an instinct, 
as a declaration of the person himself in re- 
spect to those things which ought to be done 
or to be left undone ; and that affirmation be- 
ing undeniable by the individual himself, is 
on that account conclusive on him. 

The theology which looks to the mere sal- 
vation of the soul, whether from punishment 
or from sin itself, can be defended neither on 
principle, nor — paradoxical as it may seem — 



THE PR O TES TA NT FAITH. 29 

on the plea of expediency ; certainly not, if 
he be the happiest who is the most virtuous. 

Take a practical illustration : Is a child 
really better, or more virtuous, because he 
has refrained from doing an interdicted thing 
for fear of the punishment which awaited 
him ? and would he grow up under such a 
course of training a better man ? Assuredly 
not ; for his whole aim then, would be simply 
and entirely to enjoy as much, and suffer as 
little, as possible. He might, through this 
continual fear of punishment, form an exterior 
habit of right conduct, of outward morality, 
which would pass him reputably through life. 
But would he be inwardly and really a better 
man ? Assuredly not ; and it needs only an 
adequate temptation to break that habit, and 
disprove the false philosophy in which he had 
been reared. We see it every day. But let 
the child be sound at the core, at the heart, 
without regard to what is external — to the 
husks of a base expediency ; let him be taught 
to follow, unfettered by theological systems, 
the dictates of his conscience, and obey the 



30 THE PROTESTANT FAITH. 

divine mandate within him, and then what 
end shall there be to his noble aspirations ! 
He will be prepared to enter — aye, will actu- 
ally have already entered on immortal life. 

Alas, that so many pure natures should 
have struggled and sorrowed under so much 
ignorance and superstition in endeavoring to 
reconcile their own inward promptings with 
the so-called inspired, but really most unrea- 
sonable faith, said to have been ''once deliv- 
'' ered to the saints ! " 

VII. 

The Nature of Beliefs and Opinions. 

I now pass to the consideration of the sec- 
ond main proposition, viz.: that all belief is 
involuntary , and is that which, of our own 
will, we can neither choose, change, nor con- 
trol. It is therefore not blameworthy. 

This position is not new, having received 
the sanction of some of the best minds in 
every age. 

Concerning the followers of the once fa- 



THE PROTESTANT FAITH. 31 

moiis Duns Scotus, Sir James Mackintosh 
says: ''The Scotists affirmed the blameless- 
'' ness of erroneous opinions ; a principle 
*' which is the only effectual security for con- 
''scientious enquiry, for mutual kindness and 
*' for public quiet." * 

Mackintosh also declares : '' It is as absurd 
'' to entertain an abhorrence of intellectual 
"" inferiority or error, however extensive or 
'* mischievous, as it would be to cherish a 
'' warm indignation against earthquakes or 
" hurricanes, "f 

Other writers are equally to the point. A 
very old one says: ''We know that faith 
"comes by persuasion, and is not to be con- 
"trouled."J 

Another, still older, and of high authority 

in the Church, says : *' Religion by compul- 

"sion is no longer religion; it must be by 

" persuasion, and not by constraint. Religion 

" is under no control, and cannot by power 

"be directed." § 

^ Eth. Phil. Vol. I. p. 46. t Ibid. p. 150. 

% Flechier, Bishop of Nismes, Lett. 10. 
§ Lactantius, B. 3. 



32 THE PROTESTANT FAITH. 

Citations from more modern philosophers 
and thinkers might be added without number. 
A few will suffice : '' Our will hath no power 
*' to determine the knowledge of the mind 
"■ one way or the other. No more than in 
*' objects of sight it depends on the will to see 
" that black which appears to be yellow, or in 
*' feeling to persuade ourselves that what 
** scalds us feels cold." * 

*' It does not depend on man to believe or 
'* not to believe." f 

'' It is not in our power to judge as we 
- will." % 

*' In total and absolute error all conscious- 
**ness perishes." § 

'' Thought and belief have not yet become 
*' choice." II 

*' Our opinions on any subject are not vol- 
*' untary acts but involuntary effects."^ 

* Locke, " Essay on the Human Understanding," Vol. 
II. Chap. 13. 

t Locke, Letter on Toleration. 

X Reid, Essa}^ on the Intellectual Powers, p. 545. 

§ Cousin, Hist. Mod. Phil. p. 136. 

II Hickok, Moral Phil. p. 212. ♦ 

IF Samuel Bailey, Essays on Opinions and Truth. 



THE PR TES TANT FA ITH. 3 3 

'* Belief is not an act of volition." * 

''He [man] is impelled by the very consti- 
*' tution of his nature, to believe if there is ev- 
'' idence ; and, on the other hand, he is utterly 
''unable to believe if evidence is wanting." f 

" Philosophical belief is a spontaneous as- 
*' sent or adhesion of the mind." % 

" Be not deceived ; belief of, or mere assent 
*' to the truth of propositions upon evidence 
^' is not a virtue, nor unbelief a vice ; faith is 
'' not a voluntary act, it does not depend upon 
*' the will ; every man must believe or disbe- 
^'lieve, whether he will or not, according as 
""evidence appears to him. If therefore men 
*' however dignified or distinguished command 
*' us to believe, they are guilty of the highest 
""folly and absurdity, because it is out of our 
"" power; but if they command us to believe, 
^' and annex rewards to belief, and severe pen- 
*' alties to unbelief, then they are most wicked 
"" and immoral, because they annex rewards 

* Percy Bysshe Shelley. 
t Upham, Treatise on the Will, p. 92. 
4: Sir William Hamilton, Philosophy, p. 158. 
3 



34 THE PROTESTANT FAITH. 

'' and punishments to what is involuntary, and 
''therefore neither rewardable or punisha- 
''ble."* 

These conclusions appear to be fully war- 
ranted for the following reasons : 

First: If belief be voluntary, why should 
there be any doubt, or uncertainty, or degrees 
of probability in the world ? It is plain that 
were belief consequent upon the will, there 
need be no such thing as doubt ; for then one 
would only will to have any belief in order to 
possess it. 

Let one reflect whether he can change or 
choose his belief at pleasure ; he will find he 
cannot, and that it is beyond his power, even 
with a dishonest or evil purpose, to believe 
for the time otherwise than he does. It is 
true that he may and must, from time to time, 
change his belief as new evidence is presented 
to him, or as he more carefully considers that 
already before him ; but for the time being 
he cannot, if he would, believe otherwise than 
he does. 

* Letter of William Pitt. 



THE PROTESTANT FAITH. 35 

Second: Belief is simply the result of 
thought ; it is a mental state or condition. 
Its primary signification is to assent to."^ 
Hence it depends wholly upon evidence; and 
in the very same ratio as the evidence appeals 
to our consciousness for its reception, so is 
our belief. Thus we speak of *' full," '' firm," 
and ''strong" belief — belief which we call 
knowledge — belief which admits of doubt — 
and various degrees of probability. We may 
repel the evidence, but over the belief conse- 
quent upon that evidence, are powerless. 

Third : It will be seen, on reflection, that 
one cannot rationally retain a belief which his 
judgment repudiates. Therefore, one cannot 
rationally admit his present beliefs to be erro- 
neous ; for just as soon as he thinks that they 
are erroneous, they cease to be his beliefs ; 
and since he cannot consciously err in his be- 
liefs, his erroneous beliefs are involuntary. 

From which it follows, that what in me is, 
for the time, error, does not receive that name 
from any judgment of mine, but from the 

^ Webster. 



3 6 THE PR O TES TA NT FA ITH. 

judgment of others ; and whosoever avers 
that I err in opinion, assumes all the points in 
discussion between us ; he substantially de- 
nies to me what he claims for himself, namely, 
authority to pass upon the question. 

Whence it also appears that error is igno- 
rance ; an idea well expressed by Cousin : 
" In total and absolute error all consciousness 
" perishes." 

Fourth : Belief is not volition nor anything 
like it ; it has no more necessary connection 
with the will than the idea of number has with 
the idea of justice. 

The expression, *' I believe," is conven- 
tional, and is used in the same manner as we 
say I "feel," or ''hear" or '' see " or ''am." 
That is, the /, the Ego^ xh^ per sociality y takes 
cognizance of some impression on the mind or 
sense, observes some phenomenon, or appear- 
ance, and passes upon it authoritatively. The 
will appertains to the personality, but not to 
the judgment ; and while objects of thought, 
or phenomena, may, through the exercise of 
the will, or regardless of the will, be presented 



THE PRO TESTA NT FAITH. 3 7 

to the judgment, the conclusioPx of the judg- 
ment itself, or, what is the same thing, the 
authoritative, conclusive, subjective assertion 
of the Ego in respect to such phenomena, is 
involuntary. 

We can direct our attention and investi- 
gate ; but the results of that investigation — 
our conclusions — will stand before us regard- 
less of our wishes or intentions in the matter. 

Abercrombie admits that ''the state of mind 
'' which constitutes belief is, indeed, one over 
'' which the will has no direct power. But," 
he goes on to say, ''belief depends upon evi- 
" dence ; the result of even the best evidence 
" is entirely dependent on attention ; and at- 
" tention is a voluntary intellectual state over 
"which we have a direct and absolute con- 
"trol."* 

Dr. Chalmers states the case thus : 

" Lord Byron's assertion that ' Man is not 

" responsible for his belief,' seems to have pro- 

" ceeded from the imagination that belief is in 

"no case voluntary. Now, it is very true that 

* Moral Feelings, p. 182. 



3^ THE PROTESTANT FAITH. 

** we are only responsible for what Is volun- 
''tary, and it is also true that we cannot be- 
*' lieve without evidence. But then it is a 
*' very possible thing that a doctrine may pos- 
**sess the most abundant evidence, and yet 
''not be believed, just because we choose to 
''shut our eyes against it ; and our unbelief in 
" this case is owing not to the want of evi- 
" dence, but to the evidence not being at- 
" tended to. Grant that belief is not a volun- 
"tary act — it is quite enough for the refuta- 
"tion of Lord Byron's principle, if attention 
"be a voluntary act. One attends to a sub- 
"ject because he chooses; or he does not at- 
" tend to it because he so chooses. It is the 
" fact of the attention being given or w^ithheld, 
"which forms the thing that is to be morally 
"reckoned with. And if the attention has 
"been withheld when It ought to have been 
" given, for this we are the subjects of a right- 
"ful condemnation." 

I admit attention to be a voluntary act ; 
but, while Insisting, for reasons hereafter ex- 
plained, that it is not one's duty even to inves- 



THE PROTESTANT FAITH. 39 

tigate a subject unless he thinks it to be his 
duty to do so, it is evident that Dr. Chalmers 
has not met the question. He would instruct 
us that because a man has power over his will, 
he can therefore control his senses ; because 
he can thrust his finger into the fire or with- 
hold it, it is optional with him to be free from 
pain ; because he has the ability to reason or 
not, that is, to direct his attention, he need 
not come to any conclusion ; because he can 
think when he chooses, he can believe as he 
chooses. Of course a clear statement of the 
proposition carries its own refutation. 

It is said that because belief depends upon 
attention to the evidence offered, and atten- 
tion depends upon the will, I am therefore, in 
a secondary sense, accountable for the belief, 
because accountable for my voluntary disposi- 
tion. Because not strictly correct, the state- 
ment is not correct at all. It is plain that 
while I can fix my attention, and look, I can- 
not tell beforehand whether the color will be 
white or black ; and it is equally plain that 
while the attention is voluntary and controlled 



40 THE PROTESTANT FAITH. 

by the will, the belief or conclusion following- 
the attention, is not at all voluntary. And if 
the belief be not voluntary, then Byron's as- 
sertion that '' Man is not responsible for his be- 
'' lief " is unquestionably correct ; and it does 
not suffice for the refutation of that state- 
ment to show the act of attention to be vol- 
untary. 

For our voluntary dispositions, for the at- 
tention, as the legitimate act of the person, it 
is said that we are accountable. Be it so ; 
but the argument can go no further than 
that. 

While the will may, and does, direct the at- 
tention, it has no power over the belief, which 
results independently of the volition, and 
independently of the attention also. The 
utmost attention by different persons does 
not ensure the same belief, and precisely 
the same evidence is not always regarded by 
different persons alike ; nor does it invariably 
lead in different minds to the same conclusion. 
Nay more, the very same evidence, presented 
at different times to the same mind does not 



THE PRO TES TANT FAITH. 4 1 

always lead to the same conclusion ; but in 
neither case is the conclusion a matter of will. 

Had Abercrombie and Chalmers reflected a 
moment, they must have seen the manifest 
difference between attention as an act of the 
will, and belief as the result of that attention ; 
the one being voluntary, the other involun- 
tary. 

A man who shutting his eyes fires into 
the street and kills another, is not punished 
for killing the identical person who happens 
to be hit, but for the antecedent intention and 
purpose of his mind. True, he is not pun- 
ished as for murder, if no one be injured, be- 
cause human laws take cognizance of overt 
acts merely, of the intention only when it is 
accompanied by a result ; but in a moral as- 
pect, the purpose alone is considered, as ap- 
pears from the circumstance that where the 
purpose is shown to be wanting, no crime can 
be imputed. 

The voluntary disposition of the person de- 
termines the quality of his moral actions, oc- 
casions the sense of approval and disapproval, 



42 THE PROTESTANT FAITH, 

and renders him deserving of praise or blame. 
This the child, as soon as he is able to reflect, 
the man, and everybody knows. 

I therefore conclude that, strictly and hence 
correctly speaking, all belief — and, of course, 
all erroneous belief — is in itself wholly invol- 
untary ; and for that reason no one should be 
censured for his belief or disbelief upon any 
subject however sacred or profane, whether 
such belief be thought by others to be errone- 
ous or not, or even pernicious. 

This point, if well taken, it cannot be de- 
nied, strikes at the very existence of the 
churches, and is fatal to their present form of 
organization. For, were they to retain all 
persons of right intentions and pure disposi- 
tions, and reject all others — taking members 
for what they are, that is for their characters 
and motives rather than for their doctrines — 
or for what they say are their doctrines — 
would not the complexion of the churches be 
materially changed ? 

Right intentions do not, as has been seen, 
necessarily or often ensure the same beliefs. 



THE PROTESTANT FAITH. 43 

How those intentions are to be arrived at, 
(since the creeds do not determine them,) 
whether by the assertion of the individual 
himself, (for he may tell an untruth,) or by 
the judgment of his fellow communicants, (for 
they may be deceived,) it is difficult to say. 
I leave the solution of this hard problem to 
the churches themselves. 

The idea that men are accountable for their 
beliefs and opinions in a secondary, but 
strictly incorrect and most unphilosophical 
sense, rather than for conscientious action — 
making creed rather than character the crite- 
rion of morality — although it seems at first a 
trifling and unimportant distinction, has been 
and is now a gross theological and metaphys- 
ical error — the most gross and vital in its ef- 
fects of any recorded by history ; having need- 
lessly excited the animosity of one class or 
sect against another — of the civilized against 
the barbarous — of the Jew against the Gen- 
tile — of the Protestant against the Catholic. 
It has occasioned terrible devastating wars ; 
the annulling of private friendships and pub- 



44 THE PROTESTANT FAITH. 

lie comities ; and has inflicted incalculable 
evils upon the whole human race. 

I am aware where I stand. I stand on a 
platform which holds sectarianism, in its ex- 
clusive form, to be both irreligious and un- 
philosophical, and all wars of sects unholy ; 
which throws down the barriers between 
** evangelical " and ** unevangelical " denomi- 
nations, and renders meaningless those terms 
as now applied ; and which summons all men 
— Christians and Pagans — from unseemly 
contentions to obedience to the high rule of 
tolerance and charity. 

I think I have fully demonstrated the two 
propositions with which I set out ; namely : 
that salvation is not a proper incentive to the 
performance of duty ; and that belief is invol- 
untary. 

In no sense did this so-called scheme of re- 
demption — salvation through faith or belief, 
(''the just shall live by faith,") — as understood 
by Luther and his followers, contain the solu- 
tion of any religious question. It did not dif- 
fer in kind from the theology of the Roman 



THE PROTESTANT FAITH. 45 

Church. To Luther's assertion of the neces- 
sity of free thought, and the right of free 
speech, together with the revival of letters, 
must be attributed the great uprising of his 
age ; and it is not too much to say that Prot- 
estants, in embracing and giving such prom- 
inence to religious tenets — especially the error 
of adopting creeds as a test of membership in 
their churches — have failed to comprehend 
their own history, and totally lost sight of the 
principle of personal authority and individual 
judgment, which is the foundation and root of 
every protestation they have ever uttered. 

VIII. 

Concluding Remarks. 

It must not be supposed that because any 
particular beliefs are unessential to a religious 
life, or because beliefs and opinions are invol- 
untary, they are thence unimportant. So far 
as the performance of one's own duty goes, be- 
lief is indeed of no consequence ; because duty 
does not consist in believing. But doubtless 



4^ THE PROTESTANT FAITH, 

the happiness and well-being of mankind de- 
pend very much upon the opinions which they 
hold ; since men will act more or less in ac- 
cordance with their opinions and beliefs, 
whether well founded or not. For example, 
public sentiment respecting drunkenness, slav- 
ery, and very many questions affecting the so- 
cial relations, has within a few years under- 
gone a marked change ; and thus have arisen 
in men's minds new ideas of their rights and 
duties as to those relations ; and all honest 
men will act in accordance with their new be- 
liefs. 

The churches have always deemed them- 
selves obliged to conform to the current no- 
tions of right and wrong, of virtue and vice, 
and have disciplined their members accord- 
ingly. A church member is now expelled for 
drunkenness when he would not have been a 
century ago. 

The churches practically cannot live on 
their faith alone. The faith is not enough. 
The conduct according to the professed faith 



THE PROTESTANT FAITH. 47 

is and must be a necessary test in addition to 
the formal creeds. 

I am no iconoclast. I am willing that the 
churches, synagogues, mosques, and temples 
of all peoples and climes, should stand just 
where they are until better ones can be built 
upon their sites ; I admit the fact of number- 
less religions in the world, and do not forget 
the multitude of Christian sects ; * I recog- 
nize the sanction of martyrdom for every 
faith, right or wrong. I recognize alike the 
great moral points of agreement between 
Buddhism, Mohammedanism, and Christian- 
ity, and the minor theoretical divergences be- 
tween them all. In a word, I recognize the 
voice of conscience, everywhere and among 
all men. And while mindful of these things, 
I insist that others shall not ignore them. 

Let the sectarian, whoever he may be, place 
his own church or his own sect alongside 
these facts of history, and tell us, if he can, 
what is the religious element common to all 

* See Appendix. Note 2. 



4^ THE PR O TES TA NT FA TTH. 

religious organizations ; what is the law of 
duty that applies to man universally. 

That such a law or principle exists — a law 
which shall solve the riddle of the broad 
church — precisely define the terms "virtue" 
and " moral obligation " — assign to moralities 
their exact place in ethics, and at the same 
time satisfactorily account for the different 
religious phases of the world, is, and always 
has been, the great, central idea of theology. 
For without such a law there is no one relig- 
ion for the race. 

The lawgivers and religious instructors, of 
whatever creed or nation, proceed upon the 
assumption of one universal moral law. Upon 
it are founded our ideas of justice, of virtue, 
and the equal accountability of mankind. 

" All nations have in truth only one relig- 
" ion," says Bucer. 

*' Such a rule " (says Hickok) ** must be ap- 
" prehended by the subject, and thus promul- 
"gated to the conscience, and must be so uni- 
'* versal that It may come home in its convic- 
" tions to the consciences of the race, other- 



THE PROTESTANT FAITH. 49 

** wise there can be no valid ground for a com- 
''prehensive science of morals."* 

This law existed in the human mind ante- 
rior to the Christian revelation ; nay, it must 
exist apart from any outward revelation. 

Sir James Mackintosh remarks : " If there 
" were no foundation for morality antecedent 
^' to revealed religion, we should want that 
*' important test of the conformity of a revela- 
*' tion to pure morality by which its claim to 
*' a divine origin is to be tried." f 

The law is within the individual as a pri- 
mary, axiomatic, universal intuition. A law 
not always nor often perhaps, objectively ap- 
prehended ; but this is immaterial, since the 
deductions and analogies of science continu- 
ally remind us that we live under and are sub- 
ject to innumerable laws of which we have no 
conception. Says Cicero : " The same eter- 
'' nal immutable law comprehends all nations, 
"■ at all times, under one common Master and 
** Governor of all." 

* Moral Philosophy, p. 32. 
t Eth. Phil. p. 155. 
4 



50 THE PROTESTAXT FAITH. 

What, then, is this rule — this religious law ? 

I know of no other than the simple law of 
nature that conviction is the criterion of duty. 

St. Paul said : '' To him that esteemeth any 
** thing to be unclean, to him it is unclean."* 

And Christ : *' If ye were blind ye should 
*'have no sin ; but now ye say, we see ; there- 
*'fore your sin remaineth."f 

The followers of Zwingle said (rather in- 
consistently with their creed) : " What is not 
" faith is sin. If therefore we constrain Chris- 
"tians to do what they deem unjust we force 
"them to sin." J 

Luther himself declared at the Diet of 
Worms : *' It is neither just nor innocent to 
" act against a man's conscience." § 

Rev. Henry Ward Beecher is reported to 
have said that, " Sound doctrine is truth, pur- 
" ity, love, good works ; and bad living is 
" heresy in the New Testament. Nay," he 

* Rom. xiv. 14. 
t John ix. 41. 

X Merle d'Aubign^, Hist. Ref. Vol. IV. p. 73. 
§ John Scott, Luther and the Lutheran Reformation, 
Vol. L p. 133. 



THE PROTESTANT FAITH. 5 I 

adds, " I go further and say, that nowhere in 
"the New Testament can the term heresy be 
"found appHed to any error of beHef, but 
** only to error of life." 

No nobler thought was ever uttered than 
that attributed to Abraham Lincoln : " To 
"do the right as God gives me to see the 
" right." 

From the recognition of this common au- 
thoritative consciousness, which declares the 
performance of duty to consist in no seeking 
for a personal benefit, and in no belief, but 
simply in the effort to live conformably to 
one's beliefs, however for the time they hap- 
pen to be ; true to one's self, honestly and 
without hypocrisy, making Christianity, (or 
by whatever name it may be known,) as Col- 
eridge has it, " not a theory, or a speculation, 
" but a life — not the philosophy of life, but a 
" life and a living process," will arise the New 
Church, (if a Church be possible,) the coming 
Reformation. 

Has it not already begun ? 

I can only advert to it, but it would be easy 



52 THE PROTESTANT FAITH. 

to demonstrate how the present various re- 
ligious movements are vindicating my con- 
clusions, not merely in an occasional man- 
ner, but in their whole tendency ; how free 
thought, liberal sentiments, and the multiply- 
ing diversities of opinion consequent upon an 
increasing intelligence, are producing those 
mental and social conditions which will ere 
long render it impossible to hold any body of 
men* together by what are called '' essential 
''truths." Instead of vainly striving for a 
unity of belief, it will be seen that civilization 
advances in the precise ratio of the multipli- 
cation of beliefs.* The human intellect will 
then be truly free. 

Bound to no assumed facts or asserted au- 
thoritative data, the lover of science will pur- 
sue his investigations without fear of discred- 
iting the statements of the Bible ; and the 
theologian will find something better to do 

* In this respect I cannot agree with John Stuart Mill, 
who says, that " As mankind improve, the number of doc- 
" trines which are no longer disputed or doubted, will be 
"constantly on the increase." {Essay on Liberty.) 



THE PROTESTANT FAITH. 53 

than wasting his time in childish disputes re- 
specting the construction, interpretation, and 
truth of that book. 

Such beHefs and opinions as do not affect 
the well-being of mankind will be deemed of 
little account, and efforts tending to elevate 
humanity will soon, in one form or another, 
take the place of liturgy and creed. 

But I charge evangelical clergymen with in- 
consistency. Without committing myself to 
the '* higher law" doctrine, as they understand 
it,"^ I desire to inquire whether the recognition 
of that doctrine by them, (and it is quite gen- 
eral,) detracts nothing from the force of the 
Thirty-Nine Articles? Are we to be told, 
and to believe because so told, that right and 
wrong are really relative ideas — that convic- 
tion of duty is the only guide to its perform- 
ance, and, in the same breath, that there is 
some other guide ? Shall we accept the 
higher law of moral obligation, and with it the 
lower rule of the Church ? Shall we declare 
for free-will, for a conscious moral volition, 
* See Appendix. Note 3. 



54 THE PROTESTANT FAITH. 

and be bound down to a belief to which our 
understanding refuses its assent ? 

The intelHgence of the masses has already 
risen to the level of these questions, and is 
demonstrating how a people will be provided 
with that religion, as well as political life, for 
which they are fitted. 

The clergy, orthodox and heterodox, con- 
ceding something to the popular sentiment, 
have pretty much left off talking about the 
creed, except for church and state purposes, 
and tell us now that faith is not bare belief ; 
but hope, trust, enthusiasm, sentiment ; a mat- 
ter of the heart, love of God, love of man- 
kind ; a living faith ; a state of mind which, 
according to Aquinas, leads to belief — almost 
anything and everything except belief ; that 
religion has passed historically from belief 
into feeling, and from feeling into action — into 
good works, charitable objects, and the like, 
wherein all can be agreed. 

Do they really think so ? Is there a Church 
which will accept, as its condition of member- 
ship, the definition which St. James gives of 



THE PROTESTANT FAITH. 55 

ship, the definition which St. James gives of 
rehgion : "Pure religion' and undefiled, before 
'* God, even the Father, is this : To visit the 
''fatherless and the widows in their affliction, 
''and to keep oneself unspotted from the 
"world " ? 

Can you, O most moral, philanthropic, con- 
scientious man, connect yourself with their 
body ? Try it. Are you excluded by no want 
of faith, by no heretical doctrine ? Their 
churches and Christian associations, founded 
in the eternal fitness of things, are not con- 
ventional bodies, with arbitrary rules, but 
claim to be holy catholic churches, and evan- 
gelical associations, with broad aisles and open 
doors. To the communion of those churches 
are invited every tongue and tribe upon the 
habitable globe, and vast expenditures for 
tracts and missionaries attest how sincere and 
urgent is the invitation. But the poor hea- 
then scarcely approaches the door of the sanct- 
uary before he discovers some stumbling- 
block in the shape of a ''creed," which he is 



5 6 THE PROTESTANT FAITH. 

enjoined to believe, but which he soon learns 
that Christians themselves do not fully under- 
stand, and about the meaning and interpreta- 
tion of which few of them are agreed. 

Is it to be wondered at that the heathen 
and uncultivated remain unconverted to prop- 
ositions which even the most enlightened and 
cultivated fail to comprehend ? * 

The pagan is told that the Bible is an au- 
thority. But how, as a bare atUhority, is it 
preferable to the Vedas ? For the authority 
is not in the Bible itself, nor in those who 
wrote it, but in him who reads it and passes 
upon it. As an authority /^r se, admitting of 
no question or comment, (and if authoritative 
it cannot be questioned,) it can have no 
greater force than any other book. 

I concede to the Bible all the weight to 
which it is entitled in the light of my own 
judgment. No other test is possible by me 
than that. 

Religion in its noblest, broadest accepta- 
tion, recognizes no ultimate authority foreign 
* See Appendix. Note 4. 



THE PROTESTANT FAITH. 57 

to the person himself. It defines no peculiar 
belief or creed which is orthodox to-day and 
heterodox to-morrow. The aspirations of the 
Christian Church toward its highest ideals, 
regardless of creeds, account sufficiently for 
its past successes. It has an aspect apart 
from its speculative theology. 

With increasing intelligence and a higher 
moral culture, comes a juster sense of mutual 
relations and responsibilities ; and the con- 
formity of men to those ideas in any age, 
measures in history the Christianity as well as 
civilization of that period.* 

Certain Churches have attempted to evade 
the question of the essential character of be- 
liefs by putting articles of faith to vote, and 
then promulgating them as a mere statement 
of the belief of the members, as their '' aver- 
'' age sentiment," without imposing them upon 
the individual conscience. But it must be 
perfectly evident that so soon as a Church re- 
linquishes the essential character of its creeds, 
and simply holds itself out as a body of men 
* See Appendix. Note 5. 



5 8 THE PROTESTANT FAITH. 

professing a common faith, it has lost its 
claim to be called a Church, in any received 
acceptation of the term, and admits itself to 
be without ecclesiastical authority. 

The religious spirit of our age, advancing 
In the direction we have been pursuing, seeks 
something better than the restoration of a be- 
lief — even of one universal belief — or of a 
spiritual unity. It demands the statement of 
a rational principle which logically deduces 
morality from the sense of moral obligation ; 
to faith adds works ; justifies all truly good 
men, of whatever creed or race, who have ever 
lived ; and, throwing open the door for inves- 
tigation, finds use for the material already ac- 
quired in the march of general improvement. 
Especially does it aim to abate the rancor of 
sectarianism, by uniting in closer bonds the 
human family. To this end the material and 
commercial interests of the world are rapidly 
converging. To this end science is also tend- 
ing. 

And if it can be affirmed that the perform- 
ance of duty consists neither in believing nor 



THE PROTESTANT FAITH. 59 

in disbelieving; but in being true to one's 
self, in a continual advancement toward the 
highest ideal, whether that ideal be reason, 
sentiment, revelation, inspiration, the inner 
light, or in whatever else it consists, or what- 
ever else it be called — so that it meets with a 
personal approval — then there is eluninated 
from theology that which occasions sects. And 
in emerging from them, we embrace at once 
in our communion the whole human brother- 
hood. 

"• An eloquent preacher, Richard Mott, in a 
^' discourse of much unction and pathos, is 
''said to have exclaimed aloud to his congre- 
'* gation, that he did not believe there was a 
'' Quaker, Presbyterian, Methodist, or Baptist, 
'' in Heaven. Having paused to give his 
*' audience time to stare and to wonder, he 
''said, that in Heaven, God knew no distinc- 
"tion, but considered all good men as his 
" children, and as brethren of the same fam- 
"ily."^ 

The same question which caused the Lu- 
* Letter of Thomas Jefferson. 



6o THE PROTESTANT FAITH. 

theran Reformation still remains to be set- 
tled : Shall authority, falsely so named, exter- 
nal to the person, and predicated on an as- 
sumption, triumph, or shall the person himself 
triumph over that authority ? Luther scouted 
papal authority, but he set himself up in its 
place and stead as an authority from which 
there should be no appeal. And wherever to- 
day in the Christian Church we have not 
papal Rome, we have Luther, or Calvin, or 
somebody else. 

The '' essential truths " — those so-called 
truths and formulas constituting the essence 
of the Protestant Church, bereft of which it 
would cease to exist — are without doubt the 
same in kind as those constituting the essence 
of the Roman Catholic Church, whether re- 
garded as authority superior to reason and 
ignoring it, or as theories essentially unreas- 
onable in themselves. 

However much Luther may have scouted 
the argument of the papal legate, from their 
common stand-point, it was conclusively 
against him. '' If every one were at liberty 



THE PROTESTANT FAITH. ' 6 1 

*'to bring back into discussion points which 
**for ages have been settled by the church 
^*and by councils, nothing would be certain 
''and fixed, doctrine or dogma, and there 
*' would be no belief which men must adhere 
''to under pain of eternal damnation." 

Dr. Dix, the Rector of Trinity Church, 
New York, in a recent discourse* admitted, 
with great precision and frankness, that be- 
tween external authority and private judg- 
ment, there was no middle ground ; and upon 
the rock of authority he planted his church. 
There let it rest. If this age of free thought 
and general intelligence prefers tradition to 
reason in matters of religion when the issue 
is squarely made, we must perforce be con- 
tent. 

There is more to be feared from the influ- 
ence of those representative liberal men who 
starting from right premises, and admitting 
the necessity of private judgment, still find 
some excuse for erroneous conclusions ; who, 
while acknowledging the fact that the Church 
* Delivered in the Broadway Tabernacle. 



62 THE PROTESTANT FAITH. 

Universal lies beyond the narrow bounds of 
sectarianism, still cling to old ideas as fixed 
and unalterable; as ''points which for ages 
"have been settled;" and insist on their re- 
ception, not because they are reasonable, but 
because they seem necessary (as they un- 
doubtedly are) to the maintenance of an es- 
tablished, visible Church, because the Church 
cannot exist without them. And, on the 
other hand, thinking the Church to be a di- 
vine authoritative institution, having grown 
up with the notion that to assail it, however 
lightly, is nothing less than sacrilege, there 
comes upon them a mistrust that reason can 
afford no solution to the questions which agi- 
tate the religious world. 

A distinguished Unitarian clergyman, in a 
sermon which created at the time of its publi- 
cation a profound sensation says, '* There are 
*' truths in regard to politics, society, religion, 
" history, Christianity, manners, science, art, 
''which are no longer properly in debate. 
"True they are debated, as Hazlitt debated 
" the Newtonian astronomy ; as Godwin de- 



THE PROTESTANT FAITH. 63 

''bated the existence of society; as Buckle 
'* debates the influence of religion on civiliza- 
'' tion ; but they are debated only by eccen- 
'*tric, abnormal, or presumptuous minds — 
"minds out of pitch in the great concert of 
''the race." He calls it a "perilous folly" to 
allow polity, morals, religion, to be wholly 
open questions.* 

But can the reverend gentleman inform us 
precisely what truths are really fixed ? what 
questions are not open ? He says there are 
certain ones not even to be discussed. He 
sets up "truths" for us to take as authorita- 
tive.f This is the old question, and the real 
issue. The general assertion, and assumption 
without proof, that there are "truths no 
"longer in debate" will not satisfy this gener- 
ation. Do the ever-varying discoveries in 
science and psychology, or the indefinitely 
multiplying ideas and diversities of opinion 
which distinguish civilized and thinking from 

* Sequel to " The Suspense of Faith," by Rev. Dr. Bel- 
lows, Sept. 25, 1859. 

t See Appendix. Note 6. 



64 THE PROTESTANT FAITH. 

barbarous nations, confirm it ? Have our 
Orthodox Churches in their Union Meetings 
and Evangelical Alliances, yet found a com- 
mon ground of union? Is the present politi- 
cal, religious, and moral condition of our own 
favored land, where the people are taught to 
read and reflect, such that we can infer stabil- 
ity from intellectuality, or hope for any nearer 
approach to universal agreement ? Why, this 
is just the inevitable conflict of the age ; not 
of the new against the old, but of investiga- 
tion against assumption ; of doubts against 
established systems ; of opinion against 
usurped authority ; of inquiry against dogma- 
tism and superstition. On the one hand are 
arrayed traditions, mysteries, proscription, 
slavery ; on the other, intelligence, humanity, 
liberty. To the former belong the cramped 
and crowded intellect, temporal power and 
oppression, the divine right of kings ; to the 
latter, freedom, individuality, and mental en- 
franchisement. 

Again, religion must, so far as it is to be 



THE PROTESTANT FAITH. 65 

reasonable, necessarily rest on the conclusions 
of reason. 

Cousin rightly declares that whatever is 
purely sentimental or emotional ; which, ex- 
punging reason, leaves nothing in its place 
but ''ecstacy" or ^'abstraction" — which prom- 
ises me a superhuman science on the condi- 
tion of my first losing consciousness, thought, 
liberty, memory, all that constitutes me an in- 
telligent and moral being — is without the pale 
of speculation, and unreasonable ; for it uses 
reason to deny reason. 

On the contrary, the reason, so far as it is 
the expression of man's self-consciousness, is 
and must be supreme, and its deductions are 
unanswerable, and without appeal. 

The universal conscience is likewise incon- 
trovertible, being nearest in us to what is di- 
vine. 

" The Word proclaimed by the concordant voice 
Of mankind fails not ; for in man speaks God." * 

I appeal to the natural law, which, fixed 
'* Hesiod, Work and Days. 



66 



THE PROTESTANT FAITH. 



and eternal, guides alike the planets, in their 
immense courses, and human wanderings how- 
ever erratic, in a predetermined orbit. 

" Oh, backward looking son of time, 
The new is old, the old is new ; 
The cycle of a change sublime 
Still sweeping through. 

.^t, 4t. .j^ .j^. -jt- 

TT TV" "Tv "vr TT 

" Take heart ! the waster builds again ; 
A charmed life old goodness hath ; 
The tares may perish ; but the grain 
Is not for death." * 

* John G. Whittier. 



APPENDIX. 



APPENDIX. 



NOTE I. Page 20. 

" Let the Christian reader's first object always be to 
" find out the literal meaning of the Word of God ; for on 
" this and this alone is the whole foundation of faith and 
" Christian theology." — Luther, Exposition of the Book oj 
Deuteronomy. 

NOTE 2. Page 47. 

" It is a lamentable fact that throughout the whole 
" world there is no system of religion, the votaries of 
" which are subdivided into so many sectaries as those 
"' who profess an adherence to the Christian faith." — 
Thomas Dick, Influence of Knowledge on Morals^ p. 115. 

The following is a recent enumeration of some of the dif- 
ferent religious sects in Great Britain and the United States : 
African Methodist Episcopal Church, African Methodist 
Episcopal Zion Church, Associate Presbyterians, Agapae- 
monians, Anglo-Catholics, Albrights, Apostolics, Armin- 
ians, Advent Christians, Anglican Church (High Church, 
Low Church and Broad Church), Apostolics, Baptized Be- 
lievers, Bereans, Believers in Christ, Bible Christians, Bi- 
ble Defence Association, Brethren, Believers in Divine 
Visitation of Joanna Southcott, Benevolent Methodists, 
Blue Ribbon Army, Campbellites, Church of God, Church 

69 



JO APPENDIX. 

of England and Wales, Christian Connection Methodists, 
Calvinistic Methodists (Whitefield's Connection), Countess 
of Huntingdon's Connection, Calvinists, Calvinistic Bap- 
tists, Cumberland Presbyterian Church, Church of Scot- 
land, Church of Scotland in England, Cameronians, Cov- 
enanters, Congregationalists, Catholic and Apostolic 
Church, Christians who object to be otherwise designated, 
Christian Believers, Christian Brethren, Christian Eliasites, 
Christian Israelites, Christian Teetotallers, Christian 
Temperance Men, Christian Unionists, Church of Christ, 
Christians owning no name but the Lord Jesus, Christian 
Mission, Christadelphians, Church of the People, Coven- 
try Mission Band, Christian Disciples, Church of Progress, 
Catholic Christian Church, Disciples, Dutch Reformed 
Church, Dissenters, Derbyites, Disciples in Christ, Danish 
Lutherans, English Seventh-Day Baptists, Eastern Re- 
formed Presbyterian Church, Eastern Orthodox Greek 
Church, Eclectics, Episcopalians, Evangelical Free 
Church, Evangelical Mission, Episcopal Free Church, Free 
Gospel Church, Free-Will Baptists, Free Christian Bap- 
tists, Free Church (Episcopal), Free Church of England, 
Free Union Church, Free Church of Scotland, Free Con- 
gregations, Free Thinkers, Free Religionists, Friends or 
Quakers, Followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, Free Grace 
Gospel Christians, Free Christians, Free Christian Asso- 
ciation, Free Evangelical Christians, Free Grace Gospel 
Church, Free Gospel and Christian Brethren, Free Gos- 
pellers, Free Methodists, Free Church, General Baptists, 
General Baptist New Connection, German Evangelical 
Union of the West, German Reformed Church, German 
Lutherans, Glassites, German Roman Catholics, Greek 
Catholic Church, Glory Band, Harmonists, Hicksite 
Friends, Hooker Mennonites, Hallelujah Band, Halifax 



APPENDIX. 71 

Psychological Society, Hope Mission, Humanitarians, 
Independents, Irvingites, Independent Religious Reform- 
ers, Independent Unionists, Inghamites, Independent 
Methodists, Israelites, Jews, Jumpers, Lutherans, Latter- 
Day Saints or Mormons, Mennonites, Methodist Episcopal 
Church, Methodist Episcopal Church South, Methodist 
Protestants, Modern Methodists, Morrisonians or Evan- 
gelical Unionists, Millerites or Second Adventists, Meth- 
odist Reform Union, Moravians, New Society Baptists, 
New Jerusalem or Christian Church, New Castle Sail- 
ors Society, New Church Society, New Wesleyans, Old 
Baptists, Original Connection of Wesleyans, Original 
United Seceders, Orthodox, Oneida Community or Perfec- 
tionists, Oratorians, Old Catholic, Open Baptists, Order 
of St. Austin, Orthodox Eastern Church, Peculiar People, 
Plymouth Brethren, Pedo-Baptists, Protestant Episcopal 
Church in the United States, Primitive Methodists, 
Presbyterians, Presbyterian Church in the United 
States, (Old and New School), Presbyterian Church 
in the United States South, Puseyites, Positivists, 
Practical Christian Republic, Progressive Friends, Pro- 
gressionists, Protestants adhering to the Articles of the 
Church of England, I. to XVIII. inclusive, but rejecting 
order and ritual. Providence Quakers, Peculiar Baptists, 
Polish Protestant Church, Portsmouth Mission, Presby- 
terian Baptists, Primitive Congregation, Primitive Free 
Church, Protestant Trinitarians, Protestant Union, Pres- 
byterian Church in England, Primitive Christians, Pro- 
testant Members of the Church of England, Recreative 
Religionists, Regular Baptists, River Brethren, Reformed 
Methodist Evangelical Association, Refuge Methodists, 
Reform Free Church of Wesleyan Methodists, Reformed 
Presbyterians or Covenanters,. Redemptionists or Congre- 



72 APPENDIX, 

gation of the Most Holy Redeemer, Roman Catholic, 
Ranters, Reformers, Revivalists, Rational Christians, Re- 
formed Church of England, Reformed Episcopal Church, 
Revival Band, Seventh-Day Baptists, Six-Principle Bap- 
tists, Scotch Baptists, Sandemanians, Secession Presby- 
tery, Scotch Presbyterians, Separatists (Protestant), Sab- 
batarians, Second Advent Brethren, Schwenkfelders, 
Shakers or the United Society of Believers, Southcot- 
tians, Spiritualists or Spiritists, Swedenborgian or New 
Jerusalem Church, Salem Society, Strict Baptists, Secular- 
ists, Shakers, Spiritual Church, Salvation Army, Society 
of the New Church, Tunkers, Testimony Congregational 
Church, Trinitarians, Temperance Methodists, United 
Christian Church, United Secession Church, Union Bap- 
tists, Universalists, Unitarian Baptists, United Brethren 
or Moravians, United Free Methodists, United Presby- 
terian Church Unitarians, United Christian Church, 
United Brethren in Christ, United Original Seceders, 
Unionists, Unitarian Christians, Union Free Church, 
Unsectarians, Wesleyan Methodists, Wesleyan Methodists 
New Connection, Welsh Calvinistic Presbyterians, Welsh 
Calvinistic Methodists, Welsh Free Presbyterians, Wes- 
leyan Reformers, Wesleyan Reform Glory Band, Welsh 
Calvinists, Welsh Presbyterians, Working Man's Evangel- 
istic Mission, Wesleyans, and others. 

There are said to be more than a thousand different re- 
ligious systems among mankind, but, in the words of 
Locke, " should any one a little catechise the greater 
" part of the partisans of most of the sects in the world, 
" he would not find concerning those matters they are so 
" zealous for, that they have any opinions of their own." 
— Essay on the Hu77ia7i Understandings p. 464. 



APPENDIX. 73 

NOTE 3. Page 53. 

" I perfectly agree with my brother Heath in reprobat- 
** ing any distinction between malu7n prohibitum and ma- 
" lum in se, and consider it pregnant with mischief." — 
E.00KE, J., in Aubert v. Maze 2 Bos. and Pul. 371, A.D. 
1801. 

" The morality of the position of the learned commen- 
" tator [Blackstone] has been well questioned. Its sound- 
" ness as a legal principle, though it once had sway in the 
*' courts, has been since repudiated." — i Sharswood's B'lac, 
Com. /. 58 {note by Editor). 

NOTE 4. Page 56. 

" I have never united myself to any Church, because I 
" have found difficulty in giving my assent, without mental 
" reservation, to the long, complicated statements of Chris- 
" tian doctrine which characterize their Articles of Belief 
" and Confession of Faith." — Abraham Lincoln, Carpen- 
ter's Six Months at the White House, p. 190. 

NOTE 5. Page 57. 

" The measure of what is everywhere called and es- 
" teemed virtue and vice, is the approbation or dislike* 
" praise or blame, which by a secret or tacit consent, es- 
" tablishes itself in the several societies, tribes, and clubs 
" of men in the world ; whereby several actions come to 
" find credit or disgrace among them according to the 
" judgment, maxims, or fashions of that place." — Locke, 
Essay on the Human U?tderstandi?ig, p. 336, § 10. 



74 APPENDIX. 



NOTE 6. Page 63. 

Dr. Bellows, in a letter from Chamouni, Savoy, dated 

September 15, 1867, comments in this fashion upon the 

manner of worship at the English Chapel in that place : 

' Any one who watches the girls and boys, the young 

' women and young men, saying the creed of the English 

' Liturgy, with an implicit reverence, into which thought 

' and choice evidently enter very little, sees plainly that 

' the theory is not to encourage any thought or choice 

' about it, but to take the best means for stamping a faith 

' which has been thought out and agreed upon by compe- 

' tent persons, upon those who are probably to have no 

' faith, or only a very foolish and ineffectual one, if they 

' are not thus furnished. There is an immense deal to be 

' said in favor of this side of the question." — New York 

Liberal Christian, November 2, 1867. 



THE END. 



COMMENDATORY CRITICISMS ON 
THE ESSAY. 



" Dwight H. Olmstead has published a lecture, given in 
this city some years ago on The Protestant Faith. It is a 
candid criticism of Luther's cardinal doctrine of justifica- 
tion by faith. That doctrine, as laid down by Joachim in 
1539 was, ' That we obtain the remission of sins, justifica- 
tion, and final and eternal salvation by the mere grace of 
God, only through faith in the redemption of Christ, and 
by no worthiness, work, or desert of our own.' Mr. Olm- 
stead contends that seeking salvation is not a religious, 
but a selfish act. An act performed with reference to a 
personal benefit is without merit. In the second place, 
belief is not subject to the will, but is involuntary, and is 
therefore neither praiseworthy nor blameworthy. These 
points he maintains with brief but conclusive arguments, 
and shows that Protestantism cannot stand on the ground 
which Luther defended with so much of zeal and energy." 
— The Golden Age, New York, Oct. 24, 1874. 

" This lecture was delivered many years ago before the 
Young Men's Christian Union of New York. Its style is 
excellent and its reasoning able. It is a severe criticism 
of the position of Protestantism, and for the most part, a 
just one." 

" We should do right for its own sake and not from a 
hope of Heaven or a fear of Hell. Belief is involuntary, 
and, therefore, no merit or demerit attaches to its posses- 



7^ COMMEND A TOR V CRITICISMS. 

sion. These two points are ably stated and well sustained. 
The two main positions of Protestants, that we are saved 
by faith and that hope of reward and fear of punishment 
are the chief incentives of life, are very clearly shown to 
be errors in this lecture." — The Liberal Worker, Ska?'on, 
Wis., Dec. 1 6, 1874. 

" A sharp, readable criticism of orthodoxy and episco- 
pacy by a liberal. It will pay any enquirer to read it 
carefully." — Household Messenger, London Ridge, Dec, 

1874. 

" It is written in an attractive, clear and forcible style, 
and its arguments are most powerfully and logically 
stated." — The Maiden Mirror, Mass., Oct. 31, 1874. 

" His reasoning is well arranged, terse, and compact in 
expression." — Utica Herald, 1874. 

" The author of this little pamphlet has ransacked the 
treasures of history for information bearing upon the sub- 
ject which he has so ably discussed, and from the stand- 
point which he, in common with many others occupies, 
has given in a small and compact compass a most elo- 
quent and philosophic vindication of the tenets of his be- 
lief. Acute, logical, and unimpassioned, he subjects the 
various religious creeds and systems to a rigid analysis, 
treating them with remarkable impartiality and with a de- 
gree of justice rarely met with in the doctrinal and theo- 
logical discussions of the day. He starts out with two 
propositions and maintains his argument with exceeding 
skill. His first proposition is that ' salvation is not a 
proper incentive to the performance of duty,' and in this 
connection very pertinently remarks : ' The theology that 
looks to the mere salvation of the soul, whether from pun- 
ishment or from sin itself, can be defended neither on 
principle nor, paradoxical as it may seem, on the plea of 



COM MEND A TORY CRITICISMS. 7 7 

expediency ; certainly not, if he be the happiest who is 
the most virtuous.' " 

" The author then passes to the consideration of the 
second of his propositions, ' that all belief is involuntary,' 
and fortifies his premises by most distinguished and un- 
questionable authorities, and concludes ' that all belief — 
and, of course, all erroneous belief — is in itself wholly in- 
voluntary, and for that reason no one should be censured 
for his belief or disbelief upon any subject, however sa- 
cred or profane.' This point he claims if well taken 
' strikes at the very existence of the churches and is fatal 
to their present form and organization.' " 
■ '' We regret that we have not the space to do fuller and 
more ample justice to his conclusions, conclusions that 
betray a sound judgment, critical discriminations and 
careful balancing of evidence. Such critical disquisitions 
possess great interest and furnish suggestive lessons 
which few can study without profit." — The Palisade News, 
West Hoboken^ N. y., Oct. lo, 1874. 

" A candid criticism of Luther's cardinal doctrine of 
justification by faith, and well worthy the attention of 
religious people." — Post, Rochester, N. Y. 

" In about sixty-five small pages Mr. Olmstead sets out 
his objection to the doctrine of justification by faith as 
preached by Luther. He sets it out very ably. He is 
calm and' even judicial in his judgment, and as a result 
his style is clear and forcible." — G/obe, St. Johns, N. B. 
" The most orthodox defender of the belief enter- 
tained by nearly all Protestants will find it hard to pick 
a flaw in his reasoning or find sophistry in his logic. 
His is a book which it will be well for all exponents of 
theology, whatever their creed, to master." — The T)ay^ 
New London, Conn. 



78 COMMENDATORY CRITICISMS. 

"An able and excellently written essay." — Gazette^ 
Boston. 

" Mr. Olmstead is a liberal thinker, and writes in a 
bold, clear, and vigorous style. His criticisms are, from 
his standpoint, logical, acute, and incisive." — News^ 
Baltimore, Md. 

" His views are fortified by the judgment of many 
eminent theologians and thinkers, and are worthy of 
the attention of those who would influence the opinions 
of mankind." — Transcript, Portland, Me. 

" He makes a strong case in regard to the involuntary 
nature of beliefs." — Christian Register, Boston. 

" The chapter on the ' Nature of Beliefs and Opinions * 
should be read by every one, for its conclusions are ir- 
refutable, and indeed the argument throughout is singu- 
larly convincing." — Deitiorest's Monthly, New York. 

" This is something for calm, cool, earnest readers. 
We commend this little book to all interested in the 
lofty themes of which it treats so ably and impartially." 
— State y^ourfial, Sp7'ingfield, Mass. 

" The book is thoroughly interesting and worthy of 
careful thought." — Truth- Seeker, JVew York. 

*' A labored and scholarly argument against one of the 
cardinal doctrines of the Protestant Church. The author's 
reasoning is very clear and forcible." — Times, Troy. N. Y. 

" A sharp, readable criticism of orthodoxy and epis- 
copacy by a liberal. It will pay an inquirer to read it 
carefully." — Household Messenger, London Ridge. 

" The* reasoning is clear and strong, and people not 
settled in such matters may read the book with profit." 

— Times, Philadelphia. 

*' A very keen and scholarly criticism of orthodoxy." 

— Traveller, Boston. 



COMMENDATORY CRITICISMS. 79 

"Readable and worthy close attention." — Bee^ Toleao^ 
Ohio. 

" The writer is clear and clever, and his treatise 
should compel attention and inspire thought." — Record, 
Philadelphia. 

" His essay is clear and scholarly." — Democrat and 
Chronicle, Rochester, N. V. 

"An able presentation of the case." — Telegraph, 
Hamburgh, Pa. 

" Thoughtful and well presented." — Globe, New York. 

" He reasons with ability." — Capitol, Washington, D. C. 

" It is full of cogent reasoning, and is written in a 
clear and lucid style." — Argus, Albany, N. V. 

" The reasoning is cogent, save to such as are able to 
affirm with a distinguished doctor of divinity that ' he 
believed with the spiritual lobe of his brain, even though 
the intellectual lobe was entirely skeptical.' " — Press, 
Philadelphia. 

" His quotations are numerous and apt. He makes 
out a strong case against the evangelical churches, and 
presents very strongly the claim of the gospel of Charac- 
ter. To those who have never studied the subject the 
essay will be instructive, and to those who are familiar 
with the Unitarian system of belief, the essay will be of 
value, partly because of the quotations, and partly be- 
cause of the condensed and forcible style. We can 
cordially commend this book to all interested in pro- 
gressive religious thought." — Omaha Republican, Ne- 
braska. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



" Your positions are all well taken, your reasoning 
unanswerable, your treatment candid, your language 
admirable. I am sorry we have not more such essays 
for campaign documents." — Letter from Rev. Nathan- 
iel Seaver, Jr., of Boston, October 13, 1874. 

" Mr. D. H. Olmstead's Lecture on the Protestant 
Faith is strong, true, and timely. It is sound doctrine, 
well expressed. His view is that to which liberal-minded 
men in all the sects are rapidly coming, and it is amply 
proved by the history of creeds and churches." — Memo, 
from Rev. Charles H. Bridgham, of Ann Arbor, Mich., 
October 19, 1874. 

" I have read your argument with much interest, 
and I agree entirely with your conclusions." — Letter 
from Rev. David H. Montgomery, Leicester, Mass., 
October 18, 1874. 

*' I thoroughly agree with your two propositions. So 
far as your ground is justified, it is of the last impor- 
tance that it should be stated ; and I apprehend that it 
is to an alarming extent." — Letter from Rev. Dr. Or- 
ville Dewey, October 14, 1874. 



